Stevel is correct that the 800# connection during setup is to TiVo servers, despite what is visible on the screens. DTV owns the product so they didn't want customers confused with language that might state otherwise.

Connections to that number have not been purposely disconnected. I've passed along this report to our engineering folk to look into it. I'll follow up once I hear anything or need more information.

marrone, as a side note, TiVo folk like myself only pass through the forums on occasion as time allows. An important issue like this could've gone unnoticed for quite some time if Gunnyman hadn't sent me a private message.

Actually, CIR mostly works now (and the reason it wasn't before is because older receivers like the DirecTivo's died on the extra data in the stream to make it work). They have been rolling it out over the past few months. Last I checked it last week every sports channel, sports package and movie channel I don't subscribe to was greyed out.

And with the advanced options now available you can actually do an audorecord search on a specific channel or channel range only. So I've got a search for Red Wings Live, not post on channel 636. Returns exactly what I want, Red Wings games only and only the first showing and not repeats along with the live pregame shows but not the postgame shows. Perfect.

DBSTalk, tons of info. Cutting Edge forum. Post your ideas on how to make the feature better because DirecTV is taking user ideas and updating the feature every week in the new builds. Get involved before it goes national.

It is not even close on the stations I receive and it does not work properly with OTA stations. The option to specify only certain is only useful if the program I want is on a limited number of stations. Your sports example works fine if the item you want to record is on a very limited number of channels. What if I want to record "Gamera" on any channel it may appear? I can not setup on autorecord to exclude all the channels I do not receive. I also should be able to decide for myself what channels I want the DVR to record and not have to specify it on every autorecord search. I have suggested plenty of times on the other forum to make the CIR user editable... Until it is it is mostly useless for me.

It is not even close on the stations I receive and it does not work properly with OTA stations. The option to specify only certain is only useful if the program I want is on a limited number of stations. Your sports example works fine if the item you want to record is on a very limited number of channels. What if I want to record "Gamera" on any channel it may appear? I can not setup on autorecord to exclude all the channels I do not receive. I also should be able to decide for myself what channels I want the DVR to record and not have to specify it on every autorecord search. I have suggested plenty of times on the other forum to make the CIR user editable... Until it is it is mostly useless for me.

CIR is getting there. I didn't mean to say it was all the way there. I think we all agree there should be an editable list but there isn't. Sure the improvements haven't helped you but they are helping a lot of people and the potential is sky high to be honest. We'll see if they can deliver on it.

Stevel is correct that the 800# connection during setup is to TiVo servers, despite what is visible on the screens. DTV owns the product so they didn't want customers confused with language that might state otherwise.

Connections to that number have not been purposely disconnected. I've passed along this report to our engineering folk to look into it. I'll follow up once I hear anything or need more information.

marrone, as a side note, TiVo folk like myself only pass through the forums on occasion as time allows. An important issue like this could've gone unnoticed for quite some time if Gunnyman hadn't sent me a private message.

Thanks for looking into it.

And sorry if it I sounded terse. It really wasn't meant that way, it was more of a "I hope someone at Tivo can" as opposed to "Someone BETTER!"

So far only have one TSN and it hadn't been connected for over 6 months, so I have no real data to draw from. It would be extremely helpful to get more data to chase this down since it has not reached epidemic levels enough to draw attention on its own, and an initial test from headquarters has not failed.

Please send me a private message with your TSN & the dial-in numbers you have tried.
Go to System Information and give me the TFA status as well.

If you're not comfortable sending a TSN for whatever reason, please post the dial-in numbers you have unsuccessfully tried using as a dial prefix.

If the users having problems are unable to connect I am guessing you would not have a record of the TSN?

In addition to the dial in numbers being called and the TFA status might you want the phone number being called from? I ask this because most 800 numbers have ANI on them and you should be able to track if a number has called you and not been able to connect.

Of course some people might not want to give out their home phone numbers but I would hope somebody who is having this problem would. If I was having this issue I would give you all the information but my DirecTivo's have not had to dial that number in years and I don't want to do a clear and delete everything to test it.

TiVoJerry already said they could not replicate the problem in their test environment, which might be why he is asking for help from users experiencing the problem. Perhaps it does not affect everyone.

We've been testing and experienced a failure or two but do not have a pattern yet. I'd been hoping for TSNs and/or numbers so I can see what numbers these units are calling. I need raw data from those experiencing the issue and have yet to get anything I can use.

At the very least, I really need you guys to list the numbers you're trying to reach directly. ANI information (number you are calling from) can be sent to me directly via PM since it could certainly be useful. Right now we don't have enough information to narrow our focus. Help us to help you.

CIR is getting there. I didn't mean to say it was all the way there. I think we all agree there should be an editable list but there isn't. Sure the improvements haven't helped you but they are helping a lot of people and the potential is sky high to be honest. We'll see if they can deliver on it.

That should be D*'s new motto - 'Getting there' I can remember when Earl was doing the reviews of the R15 2 or 3 years ago, and all of the stuff that was "gonna be there soon"... still seems to be the situation today... 'just wait until the next release'...

Maybe the problem can be solved by posting the correct 800 number the unit should call for initial setup? That can be put in the prefix the same as the Tivo POP number. There can't be too many people who need to redo the initial setup on an old piece of hardware. I've had the problem with an old Series 1 and a SD-DVR80. I got around it by setting the machine up to use the Internet instead of dial-up, but obviously many users can't do that kind of thing.

I'm thinking that a lot of regular phone carriers are secretly using VOIP or altering bandwidth to voice only ranges and screwing up data calls. The problem may be completely outside of Tivo or DirectTV.

If you're hacking the unit anyway, install the nocall hack and be done with it. I have 2 units running that have never called in. Not even for the initial setup. You can't steal service this way as that is linked to the access card, so it's not even immoral.

Just did an initial setup, following the first poster's directions only it wouldn't work until I put Phone Availability back to Off and Dial Tone back to On.

Since it was the first dial-in (looking up dial in numbers for my area?) there were no list of numbers to choose so i don't know what number it was trying to dial. I inserted a number for my area (16022318686) into the prefix and it worked for the two calls it needed to enable the recording function on my R10 DTivo.

If you're hacking the unit anyway, install the nocall hack and be done with it. I have 2 units running that have never called in. Not even for the initial setup. You can't steal service this way as that is linked to the access card, so it's not even immoral.

Best advice in this thread. It's like working to rig up a 8-track player to use in a 2009 Toyota.

DTivo units won't install new software, that's D/L from the satellite, until the unit is told to install the software via a phone call.

Not ever customer, not even every hacker, is comfortable manually running an upgrade script.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kb7sei

If you're hacking the unit anyway, install the nocall hack and be done with it. I have 2 units running that have never called in. Not even for the initial setup. You can't steal service this way as that is linked to the access card, so it's not even immoral.

Best advice in this thread. It's like working to rig up a 8-track player to use in a 2009 Toyota.

You Have something against 8 track players I have one and a phonograph in my 2009 toyota. I also have a pc with a 100meg Hard drive running windows 95 in there. It is right next to the cell phone The Cell phone worked pretty good until I ran out of string!!

After the last upgrade to 6.3e my unit would no longer connect to whom-ever. The nag screen was getting old so I called DTV and couldn't get an answer to my problem. (what a surprise) I was forced to do a fresh install of 6.3a and nuke the call home feature. Not sure about my next move but I really don't like DTV's flavor of DVR.

BTW - I personally don't mind my viewing habits being sent to the homeworld if it helps the ratings of my favorite shows.

The dialing prefix fix worked for me to do the update local numbers call to finish activating the used HR10-250 I bought on EBay. Sent my info to Tivo Jerry in hopes they can permanently fix this so others don't suffer like I did until I found this dialing prefix fix.
Thanks for the fix,
Dave B

I'm thinking it may have to do with the phone company muxing on the affected lines. A muxed phone line will maybe support 14400 and usually only 9600 speeds - too slow for the modems on DTVs end or that take too long to negotiate speed down to that level and the Dtivo's built-in modem times out and gives up.